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Edith's Streets

This blog records notes about London (and Greater London) streets - what the buildings are, what the background is. These pages have been compiled over many years and from many sources - its not intended to copy from other people's work.Each post represents a square on the Ordnance Survey grid -and the vast majority of information is culled from map based source material - Ordnance Survey, A/Z, etc.

On some inner city squares only a quarter of each square is done because of the volume of material involved

Please add your comments and corrections - I am sure there are lots of mistakes - and my idea is to build up a correct record interactively

Red- it is (hopefully) there nowBlue - its interesting but its goneNo colour, same as the text - don't know. needs to be verified

Birchanger RoadSt Thomas Becket Catholic Primary SchoolBaths. The first pools in the area; built by James Smith and Sons. Memorial Stone with details of the Croydon Local Board of Health. The site was bought with a donation from Robert Hovenden, and opened in 1881. It had an indoor and an outdoor pool and a house for the manager. Bombed and reopened in 1969. Demolished and gone.VR Pillarbox 1887-1901 pattern,170 Glenside. Home of William Distant, naturalist and traveller

Pool River. A stream which has risen near the Brickworks site, flows through the dip in Birchanger and Portland Roads and to the Country Park and eventually becomes the Pool.

Enmore RoadCrosfield Nursery. School nature garden

Dickenson’s LaneBrickfields Meadow. Brickworks site from which ponds which feed the Chaffinch Brook and the Pool River. One pond supports mare's-tail as well as dragonflies, damselflies and the frogs, toads and newts.Handley's brickworks, disused and the plant removed. It is now Brickfields Meadow. Public open space. In the 1930s there were 42 acres where 1m bricks a week were made. Included a small narrow gauge railway. Closed 1974.
Pool River. A stream rises near the old Brickworks site, flowing through the dip in Birchanger and Portland Roads

Dickenson's PlaceTerraced cottages.Cottages used for making Enshaw's clay pipes at the end of the 19th.Smithy 1861 - 1937.

Long LaneFire Station. This was one of the boundaries of the Croydon Racetrack. When this became a golf club, the club house was behind the fire station.

Oakley RoadCroydon Adult Learnng and Training Centre. This was South Norwood High School but was built as Portland Road Board School in 1902 designed by H Carter Pegg. It is a massive building in the London School Board tradition of the 1890s.
Infant school and later additions.

Spring LaneWoodside Timber MerchantsWoodside Baptist Church began in 1898 when local Baptists held ‘cottage meetings’. A site was purchased in Spring Lane. At first it was an iron building and the present building was opened in 1906. A hall was added in 1912 but was destroyed by air raids during World War II. A new hall was built in 1955. The old iron building was replaced in 1967Horse tram depot site. Next to the churchWoodside Tram Stop/Woodside Station. 1871. Between Arena and Blackhorse Lane on Croydon Tramlink. Originally built in 1871 it was an extra intermediate stop on the Mid Kent Railway line between Beckenham and Addiscombe. In 1880 through trains from Liverpool Street were coming here via the Thames Tunnel. In 1885 the Woodside and South Croydon Joint Railway opened a line from here to join the London and Brighton and South Coast Railway at Selsdon and a bay platform was provided for this service and the station was remodelled in brick. The link to Woodside was constructed by Joseph Firbank. In 1871 the station was called ‘Woodside and South Norwood’, later just ‘Woodside’. The station building is still there in yellow brick with a substantial booking hall built over the line – originally there was a clock on the inner wall. The station took customers for Croydon racecourse but generally the hoped for traffic never materialised, and at the First World War, it was used less and services on the Woodside & South Croydon ended on 1st January 1917. The line was electrified and reopened in 1935. But cut backs were made and then Beeching proposed closure, in 1963. However, the local MP was the then Transport Minister, Ernest Marples, and so it did not close until 1966. The Croydon Tramlink uses parts of the old Southern Region trackbed between Woodside and Selsdon, which has not had trains on it since 1983 and it is marked by a grassy mound only a few yards long.Goods yard. shut September 1963Blackhorse Road tram stop is on the site of the old Woodside Junction. The line to Addiscombe is now blocked with spoil from building the station.
Line from Woodside to Arena – the old track has been used with new ballast.

Tevan CloseNew housing partly on the old rail line – it had to be demolished for the tram
Tramline/Rail lineThis line was originally known as the Woodside & South Croydon Railway, and received Parliamentary sanction in 1880. It linked the South Eastern's Mid-Kent route, with the Croydon-Oxted line, authorised two years earlier, and had a total length of just over 2 miles. It opened on 10th August 1885, and was jointly operated by the South Eastern and London Brighton & South Coast Railways. The first services were provided by the SER, but from 1st July 1886, the LBSC began to work the line on alternate years. The new route left the Mid-Kent Line 12 chains beyond Woodside station.The Croydon Tramlink reaches Woodside just after three closely spaced tunnels. In them it turns sharply left towards Central Croydon and Wimbledon whilst the original rail alignment went straight ahead towards Woodside.

Woodside
An old hamlet swamped by 19th expansion from South Norwood, and by early 20th expansion from Croydon

Woodside GreenOpen green dates from 1662. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners planned to use it as the site of a church, but this was later abandoned. The green was taken over by the Croydon Board of Health in 1871 for use as a public open space169 set back, a weather boarded house with a lobby-entrance and Central chimney. Early 19th porch.88, a cottage orne from the mid 19th, with bargeboards.2 weather boarded house with extension around a chimneystack and a cat slide roof. This was also called Cooks Farm, Chestnuts Farm or Cherry Farm.47 Beehive 19th pub. Moulded plaster ceiling and conservatoryCottages in front of the Joiners Arms52 Joiners Arms 19th pub crammed with bric a bracWoodside Cottage. With its own well at the backWoodside Cottage –another one – late medieval parts at the back.Metropolitan drinking fountain trough.War memorial 1922. To the 318 Woodside men who fell in the First World War.

Woodside RoadSt.Luke’s Church. 1870 by W. V. Arnold, the end rebuilt by W. D. Caroe, 1949 following a fire. It is a red brick church, finished in 1926. Wall carving with St.Luke holding an ox.